Saturday, 11 October 2014

Since publishing the final instalment below I have received some rather interesting feedback from palaeontologist and colleague Dean Lomax in relation to the locality discussed in the first part of the post. Firstly let's clear up where this location is - it is indeed Kettleness, a well known fossil bearing locality on the North East Jurassic Coast that is famous for producing superb fossils of ammonites and is best known for the amount of marine reptile remains it has produced over the years.

Well it appears that the spot I reached in thirty minutes is NOT the main fossil producing spot at Kettleness. Rather it appears that you need to walk around the headland as seen in the above image and then, after a further 40 minutes walk, you will arrive at your destination. Who would have thought that? The cave and waterfall are always mentioned in relation to fossil hunting at Kettleness so it is not surprising that I made the mistake. To make me feel a little better about this, Dean also mentioned that he got caught out by this on his first visit as well.

So it appears that the information that it is a good hours walk to the fossil bearing strata was indeed correct and I apologise that I may have misled some of you with the report in my previous post. So there a few more thoughts here of which one includes the fact that, despite the revelations above, the first bay I came to is still fossiliferous and I found a few nice ammonites here so do not discount it by any means. This also means that I will now have to return at some point to check out the "true" Kettleness so that next time I can provide you with some proper information and relevant data!

Lastly, and this is by far the most important aspect here, that you appreciate that the walk from Runswick Bay to the actual fossil grounds is most assuredly an hour and ten minutes so you MUST prepare accordingly. Leave nothing to chance - check the weather forecast right up to the last moment and, of course you must know the tide times and time your visit to optimise the amount of time you have to look for fossils and still allow time to walk back before the tide returns.

I would also remind you that if you have any amount of fossils in your rucksacks that the weight will tell on your return journey and you will naturally be walking more slowly after hours of fossil hunting so you need to factor this in as well. It goes without saying that a fully charged mobile phone is essential.

So, as I mentioned previously, many thanks to Dean for putting me right and allowing me to correct those points I made in the previous post. Most of all, do not be put off and I hope some of you make the effort and visit this truly classic location for there still many fossils waiting to come to life.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

The following morning I headed off to the final venue for
the week. By reputation it was difficult to reach and, for me, this reason
alone was why it would be worth the attempt since it would follow that those
spots that are hard to get to are probably more likely to throw up some nice
specimens. The most direct route was to scale a more or less vertical cliff
with the help of only a rope that is permanently in situ there.

Well I cannot speak for others but I actually don’t fancy
risking my neck to find a fossil. Sure, it saved time, was very direct and
dropped directly onto the fossil beds but, in my opinion, it was not worth the
risk. Trying to manoeuvre down a cliff face by using a rope that is constantly
exposed to sea salt and the elements does not imbue you with confidence. Add to
that you have at least a shoulder bag or rucksack on your back to make things
even more imbalanced as you climb down which will probably become quite heavy
with any amount of fossils you may find and make the ascent back even harder.
And if the rope breaks and the tide comes in – you are going to drown.

Having quickly decided that I was not going to do that I set
off on the reputedly long walk to the fossil grounds. I double checked the
tides and the weather and, going by the information I had researched, nothing
would be left to chance. It was a beautiful morning and I made goodtime as I
circumnavigated the main cove which was all sand and then, as I approached a
large stretch of boulder strewn coastline, I was pleased to be able to
negotiate this stretch without too much trouble.

I rounded the headland and was gobsmacked to see that I had
already reached my destination. At first I doubted myself that I could not have
possibly been able to reach this spot in such a short time – but I had. It took
me thirty minutes to get here and I could just make out the rope from the top
of the cliff coming down the face to reach the shoreline and, right in front of
me, the very well-known small cave with a delightful waterfall falling behind
it.

Just why this trip has been made out to be such a tough and
long walk to partake is anyone’s guess but perhaps it is perpetuated by
local fossil hunters to dissuade people from visiting the site. This may seem
harsh but I can think of no other reason. Thirty minutes from car park to site
walking at a reasonable rate - but not over the top. The terrain is a little
awkward in only one or two spots but the rest is easily negotiated. However, I
would reinforce that it is still essential to plan the trip knowing the tides
and weather – it is still easy to get cut off unless you take extra care and
pay attention to the time. Never take chances.

As I approached the beds I was delighted to be, yet again,
the only person around and it was such a beautiful day. The tide was going out,
the sun was pleasantly warm and there was a gentle breeze – I could not believe
my luck. I quickly found the fossil bearing spot and began to search and soon
found one or two odd bits of ammonite. This area was very similar to my other
regular haunt and was also not that big an area.

It consisted of boulders, rocks and gravel and these were
intermingled with large dislodged sections of shale that had broken off from
the wave cut platform and were slowly being eroded away by the ceaseless tides
of the North Sea. Amongst this there was a lot of seaweed that had taken hold
in the nooks and crannies and, all in all, this seemed to represent quite a
challenge to locate fossils.

I need not have worried and continued to find bits of ammonite
but I only kept a couple of fragments since I had loads from the other coastal
spots I had been frequenting. Pretty soon, however, I found my first nodule
which seemed likely to hold a reasonable ammonite and then found another one in
quick succession. As I got my eye in, the fossils came in little hot spots
where I would find two or three fairly close to each other and then nothing for
quite a while. The same issues here were the same as at the other stretches –
namely there was lots of cracked nodules where other fossil hunters had been
here before me and, again, there were a couple of nice specimens that had been
completely destroyed by reckless hammering.

As the tide moved out I checked the platform but this was
extremely difficult to walk on and there was copious amounts of seaweed in
place that covered the shales in vast swathes of green. I persevered for a
while for I knew that vertebrate fossils were not too uncommon here but I could
find only flattened ammonites and a few belemnites. Ichthyosaurs are the most
common reptiles found here and a fairly complete skull had been removed only a
few years prior.

After I gave up the search on the shales (mainly because I
did not want to slip and break something!), I returned to the foreshore and
continued the search there. The fossil bearing stretch slowly widened out and
became more difficult to search but it was apparent that it was not rich at all
and I returned to the more constrained area to look for more nodules.

Despite not being as rich as I first imagined I still
managed to find some nice pieces that are likely to yield one or two nice
specimens and I felt quite happy with my finds. I also looked further up shore
and had a tentative look in the cliff face but I could find very little. That weather
was still wonderful and I decided to call it a day and begin the walk back.
Again I reiterate that the walk is not as long or as tough as is made out by
others – just be sensible and pay attention to the tides and weather. I soon
found a pub and enjoyed the view for today was my last day in the north east
but although this week was ending, tomorrow I would be heading south to an
undisclosed and disused quarry to look in the clays of the Callovian seas.

I left the north very early and headed south down the A1.
After I has stopped for a much needed breakfast I arrived at the quarry around
nine o’clock and met up with a few colleagues from our research group to see
what we could find. Conditions were fine – blue sky, not too hot and a gentle
breeze but there had been no rain here for many a day and the terrain looked
harsh. Compared to what I had been experiencing over the last week with the
ever encroaching tides revealing new treasures each day, this looked very likely
to be a hard day. A dry arid basin swept before us with the ancient clay sea
glistening white amongst the copious amount of vegetation that was now growing
rapidly.

Add to this I knew that this venue had been visited only
recently by another group and without a change in the weather, I felt our
chances of finding things were low to say the least. As we began searching we
immediately came across a vast plain of mud cracks, many of which were already desiccating
and others were curling up and were now loose on the surface. Everything looked
grim.

We found a spot that looked like it may be promising and a
couple of us dropped down onto our hands and knees for a closer inspection of
the exposed surface. The clay looked completely bereft of fossils and I was
just about to move on when I spied a tiny black fragment pushing through the
clay. I carefully cleared the sediment from this speck of black and was amazed
to find a partial tooth from the hybodont shark Asteracanthus. Considering the conditions this was completely
unexpected.

We gradually looked around the same spot gently sifting
through the clay and were rewarded with two further partial fragments of teeth
from the same shark. Associated remains? Possibly but considering this quarry
had not been worked for some years now it is hard to be sure.

After this brief moment of interest we spread out to see
what else we could find. It had really turned out to be yet another nice day
but it was proving difficult to find anything. A lot of the old spoil now was
like concrete and had formed almost a solid crust on the surface. As you broke
into it, the old shales simply disintegrated - everything was so dusty.

Eventually, one of the crew found an unusual, what appeared
to be, compressed mollusc. We had seen these on occasion but only rarely and
the general consensus is that they are actually the compressed remains of a
nautiloid – perhaps Paracenoceras. In
any event this turned out to be quite a rare fossil and now resides in the
collections at the NHM in London.

Unfortunately this find turned out to be the exception
rather than the rule. The ever increasing amount of vegetation (you could
almost describe it as scrub) was making things really difficult and, for all
our prospecting abilities we could only muster up a couple of scrappy bits of
bone and couple of fish scales although there was one more interesting fossil
that turned up.

From L - R Two bits of bone, three fish scales with the Asteracanthus tooth above and the coprolite at the far right.

Coprolites
are extremely abundant in the Oxford Clay. Most are from fish which are small,
generally a pasty off white colour and of little interest. Large ones from
animals such as the marine reptiles are much rarer but these too, apart from
their size, are also of little consequence.

But every
now and then one turns up with inclusions which are normally representative of
the animals most recent meal – and these are very interesting indeed. They
normally show up as black and shiny against the pasty background of the
coprolite and represent various food sources that would have passed through the
food chain.

Many of
these inclusions are unrecognisable but some can be readily identified. One of
the more common elements found are the remains of belemnites and some of the
hooklets appear as pristine today as they may have been over 160 million years
ago. But, on occasion, a coprolite can reveal something extraordinary and I was
fortunate enough to find just such a fossil today.

This
coprolite reveals, remarkably, several pieces of fish bone including a perfect
little vertebra. A couple of inclusions looked like small teeth but were
revealed to be a scale and a small bone. There were other indistinguishable
inclusions as well and this coprolite is the first one of its kind that I have
found – maybe not as spectacular as big teeth or bones but no less of equal
fascination.

In the
end we decided to call it day and headed home – for me the first time I had
been home in a week. All in all it had been a great week that I had spent with
friends, both old and new, and I was very lucky with the weather which had been
very spring-like. I had also found a good quantity of ammonites in the north
east although vertebrate fossils had eluded me on this occasion but I had
managed to find a nice shark tooth and coprolite on the very last day so you
cannot complain about that.

Most of
all I loved the fact that I had begun the week searching for fossils in the Toarcian
seas of 180 million years ago and finished up looking for the creatures of the
Tethys Ocean, in sediments around 16
million years younger than where I had first started prospecting simply by
driving a few miles in my car. Ancient worlds brought to life by the tools of
the modern world.

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Saurian is.....

I am an avocational vertebrate palaeontologist with a particular interest in tyrannosaurids. Fossil preparation, conservation and research also feature high on my agenda.
Currently involved in the day to day running of a progressive and exciting research group - we are hopeful of making a positive contribution to our science.